The Soul’s Testimony.14771477 [The tract De
Testimonio Animæ is cast into an apologetic form and very
properly comes into place here. It was written in Orthodoxy and
forms a valuable preface to the De Anima, of which we cannot say
that it is quite free from errors. As it refers to the Apology, we
cannot place it before that work, and perhaps we shall not greatly err
if we consider it a sequel to the Apology. If it proves to others the
source of as much enjoyment as it affords to me, it will be treasured
by them as one of the most precious testimonies to the Gospel,
introducing Man to himself.]

[Translated by the Rev. S.
Thelwall.]

————————————

Chapter I.

If, with the object of
convicting the rivals and persecutors of Christian truth, from their
own authorities, of the crime of at once being untrue to themselves and
doing injustice to us, one is bent on gathering testimonies in its
favour from the writings of the philosophers, or the poets, or other
masters of this world’s learning and wisdom, he has need of a
most inquisitive spirit, and a still greater memory to carry out the
research. Indeed, some of our people, who still continued their
inquisitive labours in ancient literature, and still occupied memory
with it, have published works we have in our hands of this very sort;
works in which they relate and attest the nature and origin of their
traditions, and the grounds on which opinions rest, and from which it
may be seen at once that we have embraced nothing new or
monstrous—nothing for which we cannot claim the support of
ordinary and well-known writings, whether in ejecting error from our
creed, or admitting truth into it. But the unbelieving hardness of the
human heart leads them to slight even their own teachers, otherwise
approved and in high renown, whenever they touch upon arguments which
are used in defence of Christianity. Then the poets are fools, when
they describe the gods with human passions and stories; then the
philosophers are without reason, when they knock at the gates of
truth. He will thus far be reckoned a wise and sagacious man who
has gone the length of uttering sentiments that are almost Christian;
while if, in a mere affectation of judgment and wisdom, he sets himself
to reject their ceremonies, or to convicting the world of its sin, he
is sure to be branded as a Christian. We will have nothing, then, to do
with the literature and the teaching, perverted in its best results,
which is believed in its errors rather than its truth. We shall lay no
stress on it, if some of their authors have declared that there is one
God, and one God only. Nay, let it be granted that there is nothing in
heathen writers which a Christian approves, that it may be put out of
his power to utter a single word of reproach. For all are not
familiar with their teachings; and those who are, have no assurance in
regard to their truth. Far less do men assent to our writings, to
which no one comes for guidance unless he is already a Christian.
I call in a new testimony, yea, one which is better known than all
literature, more discussed than all doctrine, more public than all
publications, greater than the whole man—I mean all which is
man’s. Stand forth, O soul, whether thou art a divine and eternal
substance, as most philosophers believe if it be so, thou wilt be the
less likely to lie,—or whether thou art the very opposite of
divine, because indeed a mortal thing, as Epicurus alone
thinks—in that case there will be the less temptation for thee to
speak falsely in this case: whether thou art received from heaven, or
sprung from earth; whether thou art formed of numbers, or of atoms;
whether thine existence begins with that of the body, or thou art put
into it at a later stage; from whatever source, and in whatever way,
thou makest man a rational being, in the highest degree capable of
thought and knowledge,—stand forth and give thy witness. But I
call thee not as when, fashioned in schools, trained in libraries, fed
in Attic academies and porticoes, thou belchest wisdom. I address
thee simple, rude, uncultured and untaught, such as they have thee who
have thee only; that very thing of the road, the street, the work-shop,
wholly. I want thine inexperience, since in thy small experience no one
feels any confidence. I demand of thee the things thou bringest with
thee into man, which thou knowest either from 176thyself, or from thine author, whoever he may
be. Thou art not, as I well know, Christian; for a man becomes a
Christian, he is not born one. Yet Christians earnestly press thee for
a testimony; they press thee, though an alien, to bear witness against
thy friends, that they may be put to shame before thee, for hating and
mocking us on account of things which convict thee as an
accessory.

1477 [The tract De
Testimonio Animæ is cast into an apologetic form and very
properly comes into place here. It was written in Orthodoxy and
forms a valuable preface to the De Anima, of which we cannot say
that it is quite free from errors. As it refers to the Apology, we
cannot place it before that work, and perhaps we shall not greatly err
if we consider it a sequel to the Apology. If it proves to others the
source of as much enjoyment as it affords to me, it will be treasured
by them as one of the most precious testimonies to the Gospel,
introducing Man to himself.]